American Association of Caregiving Youth (AACY)

A Caregiving Veteran, I supported my dad through Cholangiocarcinoma (Bile Duct Cancer) and my mom through Alzheimer's (and Hospice for both) while balancing a career and raising two boys. 

Alzheimer's was so hard. After my mom passed, I wanted to help other families in similar situations, and I created a website to raise awareness of the challenges and benefits of kids living with Alzheimer's. My main goal was to get middle and high schools to recognize children who help care for a grandparent at home with community service hour awards. 

Developing this initial project, www.KidsAreCaregiversToo.com opened my eyes to a huge, broader issue. As I researched the impact of caregiving on children, I realized it is far bigger than just Alzheimer's and that what my kids went through had a name – they were Caregiving Youth. Things could have been easier.

In the United States, over 5.4 million children and teenagers aged 18 or younger provide significant assistance or care to a family member with a chronic illness, disability, mental health condition, or frailty due to aging. These young individuals are called Caregiving Youth in the US and Young Carers in the UK.

They represent diverse races, religions, and socioeconomic backgrounds, with stories as varied as the populations they represent. More than 70% assist a parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent. Many care for disabled siblings or other family members—34% help more than one person.

While creating the website, I connected with researchers, authors, and leading thought leaders across the US and globally, working on Caregiving Youth issues. I knew I could apply my professional and life experience to make a difference, so I'm doing that.
 
Caregiving Youth is a big problem that deserves our collective attention and support. There are huge opportunities to help these kids. It is not just another cause; it is an important, transformative social innovation opportunity that needs addressing.

National Advisory Council Chair, U.S. Development, AACY - Founder Kids are Caregivers Too

VIPC | Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation

November 16, 2021 | Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) announced a name change to Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)

Director, Marketing, Communications, Public Relations

Responsible for leadership, strategy, and successful execution of all marketing, public relations, and communications for Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT). 

As a member of the leadership team, reporting to the CEO, I was responsible for all aspects of CIT's marketing, communications, and public relations activities related to commercialization, capital formation, market development initiatives, and broadband expansion throughout Virginia. 

I produced, rewrote, and improved all forward-facing communications for the following programs | CIT GAP Investment Funds | Commonwealth Research Commercialization Grant Fund (CRCF) | Virginia Founders Fund | Broadband/Rural Broadband | Smart Communities | Cybersecurity | SBIR/STTR Support (Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) & Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs) | University Partnerships | Startup Company Mentoring & Engagement programs. 

During my tenure, we successfully refreshed the CIT brand, created consistent messaging across the organization, refined program definitions, and expanded outreach tactics. Through these efforts, we significantly increased engagement with the community, our stakeholders, and the people we serve. All social media channels benefited by increased reach, interaction, followers, and engagement by mid-triple digits across the board. 

I also guided the team as we updated and recreated all forward-facing communications, back-end comms processes, CIT content, and messaging tools. The whole idea was to create a communications program that was more cost-effective, easier to maintain, and scalable on the back end while refreshing the CIT brand, removing the building from the logo, creating consistency, and updating legacy language from the previous years.

Director, Marketing, Communications, Public Relations - Center for Innovative Technology (CIT)

Private Investments - Limited Liability Holding Company

Responsible for strategic planning/portfolio operations support/performance of $150 million+ private investment fund. Deployed into portfolio companies to assess, assist and coach company leadership teams as part of broader strategic plans - headcount 800+. Mainly focused on marketing/branding & PR, business development, sales, operations & M&A activities. Featured investments:

Fairview Property Investments LLC
4.5 million sq ft office park (Fairview Park) Falls Church, VA

2941 Fairview Park Drive
Lead | Orr Partners
15-story commercial Class A office building - General Dynamics Headquarters

Award-winning D.C. area restaurants
2941 Restaurant
Lead | Jonathan Krinn
Pizzeria Orso

Cello Software
Start-up SaaS restaurant technology company

Gianni Campana
Via Palestro, 24, Milan
Leads | Gianni/Andrea Campagna
Acquired Caraceni's atelier and renovated the historic Palazzo Bernasconi on Milan's Via Palestro. Featured in FORBES article "The man with the Golden Needle." 

Cello Restaurant
53 East 77th Street, NY
Lead | Laurent Tourondel - (Now) Celebrity Chef - BLT Restaurants etc.
NY Times 3-star rated restaurant on Manhattan's Upper Eastside

Cello Music & Film Systems
41 East 62nd Street, NY
Lead | Mark Levinson - Audio Icon
Cello acquired close to a dozen of the best custom home theater installation businesses in the country to standardize the ultra-high-end installation business in Houston, Miami, Seattle, Aspen, NY, & L.A.

Cello Studios
6000 West Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood (United Western Recorders building)
Lead | John Porter - Recording Industry Icon/Producer
Aquired building & assets - business operations.

Cello Recordings
Leads | John Porter, Andrew Lauder (A&R), Taj Mahal (American Blues Musician)
Offices in NYC, London, & L.A. The company released records via two imprints: Jericho, contemporary recordings, & Cello Recordings, focused on acoustic recordings & Music Maker Recordings. Cello/Jericho had a distribution deal with Sire Records Group Inc.

Vice President Marketing & Business Development | Chief of Staff

Osborn Capital LLC | Venture Fund

Osborn Capital, LLC - founded by Jeff Osborn - former UUNET Executive - and Eric Janszen, author of Itulip.com, was a venture capital firm that specialized in seed and early-stage technology investments.

Areas of responsibility included brand-building, research, and networking to drive the development of new investments and deals. Activities included due diligence and market/business analysis, as well as helping negotiate new deals and follow-on investment terms. 

Led several projects of notable risk and complexity; assisted with the development and execution of overall business strategy, goals, and marketing plans. Implemented new ideas and created tools for the company and its stakeholders. 

I actively leveraged my background to provide operational support for Osborn Capital portfolio companies by advising their leadership teams on strategic sales planning, tactics, and forecasting best practices. I also assisted with marketing, branding, and communications standards. 

Always worked to “connect people with people” – from potential clients and funding sources to employee recruiting.

Responsible for the Osborn Capital brand, public relations, and all forward-facing communications. 

Sometimes sent in to troubleshoot organizational issues or help figure out how to best capitalize on significant opportunities inherent to start-up companies, a.k.a - a problem solver.

Often acted as a proxy for Board of Directors meetings and presented as the face of the firm for public speaking and event engagements.

Executive Director

UUNET

One of the front-line builders of the web services business unit from idea through execution. Responsible for defining UUNET's leadership expectations, collecting customer requirements, and translating/coordinating those with the engineering team's capabilities to create a salable, supportable, billable, scalable web hosting product from ground zero. Annual recurring revenue generated: $0 - $40 million in less than two years.

Orchestrated and led a team of 80+ people across ten regional sales divisions in the United States. Had indirect sales/product management responsibilities for over 500+ leased line sales reps who also sold web hosting products and services. Coordinating web sales, training, installation, and support for UUNET's International sales divisions is an additional accomplishment.

I was active in UUNET through the below timeline of events. Assigned to work with executives, product managers and leadership of each of the acquiring companies on knowledge transfer/training of web hosting services to expand revenue streams and integrate hosting sales into the larger sales organization channels. 

UUNET Timeline:
1991 - UUNET participates in the founding of the Commercial Internet Exchange Association
1992 - UUNET with MFS co-creates MAE-East, for a time the world's busiest internet exchange and "center of the internet"
1994 - Microsoft paid $16.4 million for a 15 percent share of the company
1995 - In May, UUNET is listed on the NASDAQ stock market in an initial public offering that would become part of the beginning of the dot-com boom.
1995 - UUNET Technologies Inc acquired Unipalm Pipex.
1996 - UUNET Technologies agreed to a merger with the Microsoft backed MFS Communications Company.
1996 - Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS) acquires UUNET for $2 Billion on 12 August 1996.
1996 - WorldCom acquires MFS for $12.4 billion

[Source for timeline Wikipedia]

National Sales & Marketing Director - Web Services Business Unit

Part of the three-person team that founded the Web Hosting Business Unit, the first in the industry to design, sell, market, and deliver a commercial product capable of hosting multiple IP addresses on a single web server. Vetted, hired, and led agency relationships for new initiative branding and public relations.

I worked with the executive staff, the CEO, the board, and early investors on pre-IPO Road Show presentations to help script, present, and refine our company's story for potential investors and stakeholders. 

My role was to tell the story of UUNET as a front-line team member who was part of a uniquely positive and successful start-up culture, and also from a web product perspective as a subject matter expert on hosting services.

Participated in extensive briefing and Q&A sessions with potential investors, bankers, market analysts, press, and the public before our public offering while continuing responsibilities for managing the web hosting sales team, operational challenges inherent to new product development, marketing execution, major account coordination and meeting/beating monthly revenue numbers.

The newly formed web team grew recurring revenue from $0 – $1 M + in the first year and continuously evolved market segmentation, product definitions, branding, engineering refinement, installation and billing procedures for the new technology.

Notable early clients included Dow Jones, Gannett, The Wall Street Journal, Marriott, Mercedes USA, Subaru, The Sci-Fi Channel, Comedy Central, The Motley Fool, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Disney, Time Warner, Value Jet, Sony PlayStation, Cotton Incorporated, The Securities Industry Association, America Online - AOL, and The Microsoft Network.

Founding Member, UUNET Web Hosting Division

I managed a sales and technical support team of 20+ members for the Midwest territory.

Responsible for forecasting, and hitting monthly territory revenue numbers, lead generation, hiring, executing sales/product training, coaching, and leadership of the team. 

Consistently exceeded revenue goals for the new territory by over 200% on average - helped define and expand the market in the Midwest sales region.

Represented UUNET at local and national conferences through presentations/public speaking engagements about the Internet.

High Speed Sales Mid-West Regional Manager

One of the first three salespeople at UUNET Technologies. Exceeded monthly sales quota by over 200% consistently.

Won Time Warner Account providing dial-up services to editors at Time Warner, including Time Magazine. Was responsible for customer service and creating support procedures and billing processes for the first-of-a-kind major opportunity sale.

Account Executive High Speed and Dial Sales, UUNET Technologies

United Airlines

Fulfilled a lifetime goal/dream of visiting every state in the U.S. Awarded 'Best of the Best' - a designation given to the top 50 Flight Attendants (out of over 15,000) based on customer feedback and peer recognition.

Flight Attendant

Founder. Executive Advisor. Dot connector. Opportunity enthusiast. Positive culture builder. I have some experience solving big problems and turning ideas into reality – concepts through completion.

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